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Thursday, July 13, 2006

NHLPA elects new board

The ancient battles now fought, the old hands will lay down their arms and turn over the cause to a new generation.

The NHLPA elected a new board yesterdayas a new cast will take over the job of guiding the some 700 NHL players through the minefields of contracts, suspension meetings and such.

The changing of the guard will finally give the weary Trevor Linden a break from the boiling pot of water known as labour relations betwee the NHL and the NHLPA.

Linden served as president for eight tumultuos years a near decade of revolt, strikes, lock outs and even a cancelled season. For Linden who is a soft spoken and genuine kind of person it must have been a tiring role to try and bring satisfaction to all who toiled for the NHL and paid dues to the PA.

There are seven members on the NHLPA board, five from North America and two from Europe. The new North American reps include; Kevyn Adams, Alyn McCauley, Wade Redden, Mathieu Schneider and Marty Turco. Daniel Alfredsson and Arturs Irbe hold the vice-presidential positions reserved for European players.

The change over comes after some heated debate over the past dealings by the union and the changing of the leadership from Bob Goodenow days to the Ted Saskin era, a changeover that did not go as smooth as many had hoped. In fact, there to this day still is some backlash over the change and some ill will towards Saskin.

The new board has its job cut out for it, as they try to start anew in September and keep the NHLPA on track to represent its players to its best ability. At times a thankless job, but one that needs to be done.